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September 7, 2013

Schadenfreude 167 (A Continuing Series)

In an eerie flashback to another Yankee-Red Sox dramatic moment, Quintin Berry became the 2013 version of Dave Roberts, who turned the tide in the 2004 ALCS with his steal off Rivera in Game 4. Berry pinch-ran for Mike Napoli Thursday night, after Napoli singled with two outs in the ninth. On the first pitch to the following batter, Stephen Drew, Berry took off for second, slid in safely, and then scrambled to third as Austin Romine's throw squirted into left center. Drew drove Berry in with a bloop single to right as the Sox tied the game 8-8.

If your ballclub is destined for some magical late-season run that won't end until sometime in October, you almost certainly don't lose on a night like this.

You don't rise up and score six runs in the seventh inning against the first-place Red Sox and then see such an astonishing comeback go to waste because the greatest closer in baseball history blows a ninth-inning lead.

The Yankees outdid themselves on Friday night with an epic meltdown. They took an 8-3 lead into the seventh inning, but their bullpen imploded from there, allowing nine runs, and the Red Sox claimed a stunning 12-8 victory at the Stadium in exactly four hours.

In the span of two days, the Red Sox have broken Yankee hearts twice with remarkable victories in games the Bombers need desperately. ...

A team with questionable intestinal fortitude might be wiped out by consecutive gut-wrenching losses to its bitter rivals in the heat of a pennant race. We'll see if the Yanks can respond in the final two games of the series Saturday and Sunday, but one thing is clear - pinstriped playoff hopes are dimming as the Sox thrive.

How [much] can one baseball team withstand? When does resilience devolve into sheer exhaustion?

The Yankees seem determined to find out.

Joe Girardi's group followed its Worst Loss of the Season on Thursday night with ...the Even Worse Worst Loss of the Season on Friday night. A seemingly comfortable lead intersected with a battered bullpen at Yankee Stadium, and the result couldn't have been any uglier: 12-8 Red Sox at Yankee Stadium, dropping the Yankees (75-66) behind both Baltimore (75-65) and Cleveland (75-65) — with all of them trailing Tampa Bay (77-63) — in the American League wild-card race.